Conviction vacated over RMV certificate

A defendant’s conviction for operating a motor vehicle after his license had been revoked for operating while under the influence of intoxicating liquor must be vacated because of the trial judge’s decision to admit into evidence — without any testimony from a witness on behalf of the registry of motor vehicles — a certificate from the registry attesting to the fact that a notice of license suspension or revocation had been mailed to the defendant, the Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.

The defendant argued that the admission in evidence of the registry certificate, in the absence of testimony from a registry witness, violated his right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment.

The SJC agreed.

“We conclude that the registry certificate, like a certificate of drug analysis, is testimonial in nature,” Justice Francis X. Spina stated for a unanimous court. “As such, it plainly was made for use at the defendant’s trial as prima facie evidence that he was notified of his license revocation, an essential element of the charged crime that the Commonwealth was required to prove.”